VPRS 7842 Register of Applications for Gold Mining Leases

Full description

Gold Mining Leases (often known simply as Mining Leases) could be granted to a person or body corporate to entitle them to mine or undertake associated mining activity on Crown land subject to the payment of an annual fee and the satisfaction of certain conditions. Areas subject to a lease application were required to be surveyed. Crown land already taken up as a claim under a miners right or business licence could not be the subject of a lease or licence without the consent of the holder. The entitlement to mine under a lease included the construction and use of races, dams, buildings etc. The leaseholder was also entitled to reside on the land. Applications were initially submitted to the district Mining Warden who would forward a duplicate to the Mines Department in Melbourne. From circa 1915 applications were required to be submitted direct to the Mines Department and they would forward a duplicate to the appropriate Warden.

This series comprises a register of mining lease applications maintained centrally by the Mines Departments from 1859 to 1972. It was used to allocate a unique number to each application within a mining district as well as to record a history of each lease. Summary details about the application, the wardens report and recommendation and the particulars of the lease itself were recorded on the left hand side of each folio. The right hand side of the folio contains a chronological summary of correspondence relating to the lease.

Please note: The P1 consignment was reprocessed in 2005. The records were rearranged and may now be found in the P2 consignment.